To those who understand the horrifying effects of the progressives’ attack on our family, church and government, the fight to save American freedom can seem frustrating and exhausting. It is also a long term commitment that can change your life.

Here are 10 tips to make the fight easier.

Know that you do make a difference – Your words and stories can be a powerful influence. Whether it is in the thinking of a child, a family or an entire community. Your effect does not stop with the people you meet. The person you influenced will go on to change others or even to be the spark that topples a corrupt politician or even a party.

Take control of your time – Combatting liberal misinformation can become time consuming. People will ask for your help, issues will appear that need your immediate attention, important meetings and urgent deadlines can turn your journey into a struggle. Decide how much time you will invest in the fight. Create a daily schedule and do your best to stick to it. Create ample time to spend with family or friends.

Block out the noise – The key to keeping your time under control is to keep the way you respond to your environment under control. Drudge, Facebook and Twitter can help you identify issue developments that you can research. Along with emails and phone calls, they can also be a distraction that derails your entire time schedule or renders you ineffective. Set specific times of the day to respond to emails and calls. Learn to limit your time on social media and stick to posts that reflect your key issue.

Take control of your resources – Actions like creating flyers, traveling to meetings and purchasing office materials can become costly. If you spend more than you can afford, the additional stress can bring on fatigue and make you less effective at building new relationships. Calculate what you can afford to spend, and then stay within your budget. To keep your expenses down, seek motivated community members and other volunteers to help.

Select your battle – Our freedoms are under attack from politicians, federal agencies, planners, academia, political organizations, environmentalists, non-profits, the media and more. Imagine you are a batter facing a dozen pitchers. You cannot hit 12 balls at once. But you can slam one out of the park. Pick a single issue you want to defend and go for it. Take comfort knowing there are thousands of other compatriots who will respond to the other issues.

Become a subject matter expert – Learn all you can about your selected issue. Your goal is to become so expert, that people want to hear about your specific issue from you. Research original documents, crosscheck at least three references or websites to validate the information you read. Follow up on references and books you see in news articles. Always check information. Take nothing for granted.

Get plenty of sleep – This is a big one. Lack of sleep can alter your brain chemistry, cause overeating and general health deterioration. It can also make it tough to regulate your emotions. To be effective at spreading your influence, and maintaining a sound personal life, you need to be healthy and emotionally balanced. A good rule is to get 8 hours of sleep a night, or whatever amount it takes for you to wake up feeling refreshed.

Develop ways to manage your emotions – In the Shattering America’s Trance workshop; you learn that politicians intentionally keep community members squabbling among themselves to hide their true activities. Topics like climate change or transgender bathroom rules are artificially contrived issues that cause raging conflicts. Some days, the opposition ctrates so much dissension, the fight seems hopeless. The truth is, no matter how you feel; content, discouraged or anxious, nothing has changed. The long-term fight to wake up more Americans is the same. Find ways to pull out of emotional traps. Learn to melt away defeat or depression and replace it with a stronger, confident you.

See things as they are – Leaders never sugarcoat or overestimate the problem. They see it as it is. They then have the confidence to know they can develop a strategy that will overcome the challenges and win. By virtue of joining this fight, you are a leader. Progressives have been undermining our American culture since the early 1900’s. It is unlikely we can reverse their damage in a few election cycles. We can build the foundation of constitutional freedoms that will eventually tear down what they have done. That strategy involves sharing our history, real news events and building neighborhood unity behind conservative values.

Find joy – The politicians want Americans who oppose them in a state of fight or flight. It keeps people off balance and wears them down. That is why you see the daily attacks on our constitutional rights and continual accusations of “racism” and “intolerance” from the left. Learn to ignore issues that do not directly affect your goals. If your life is dour and joyless, the other side wins. Engage in activities with your family. Laugh and have fun. Go hiking or fishing. Spend more time with church activities. You have one life on this earth. Fight hard, and take the time to enjoy it.

American conservatives are fighters. But, how do you keep fighting the left, when it seem as if the war is already lost?

Recently, I watched Curtis Bowers’ DVD, Agenda 2, Masters of Deceit. Bowers describes the complete infiltration of our families, churches and government by the determined elites behind the decades old progressive movement.

The video graphically punctuates issues I know you already understand.

That Common Core is a propaganda tool that subjugates our children to the state. That the Affordable Care Act is intentionally collapsing as it turns into a federally controlled single payer system, and that through illegal immigration and expanded welfare, the left has rendered half of Americans likely Democratic voters.

Bowers makes it clear, this is not going to happen, it is already done.

How do we fight back and win, in the midst of so much wreckage?

People have won against insurmountable odds…and we can too. Much of the ability to win has to do with our mindset.

Let me introduce you to the Stockdale Paradox.

Admiral James Stockdale was the highest-ranking officer imprisoned in Vietnam. Captured in 1965, he remained a prisoner for over seven years, four of them in solitary confinement.

Stockdale lived through torture, beatings and humiliation that left many dead within the first few months of captivity. Yet against insurmountable odds, he not only survived, he won and became a hero for his defiance of his Communist captors.

Jim Collins, author of the 2005 bestseller, “Good to Great”, interviewed Stockdale to find his secret.

His answers apply to our own on-going battles.

“I never lost faith in the end of the story.” Stockdale said. “I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.”

When asked who didn’t make it out, he shocked the author.
“The optimists,” he said. “They were the ones who said ‘we’re going to be out by Christmas’. And, Christmas would come and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. Then they died of a broken heart.”

Stockdale’s lesson is one we can use. We cannot afford to set up false expectations. The next presidential election will not save America. Together, we will. No matter what your situation, you must muster the strength and self-assurance to see and accept reality as it truly is. Sugarcoating our circumstances will only cause us to lose the long-term war.

America is already over the cliff.

We live in a nation where a leftist president defies the law with impunity, where those who speak against the government are labeled domestic terrorists, and where we proclaim our first amendment rights while being religiously persecuted.

But, we must never see this as the end. We also need to hold onto the faith that ultimately, we will prevail.

“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

That combination of brutal honesty and unflinching faith sets the stage for triumph.

Personally, I have no doubt that we will win this war against our freedom. It may not be in the next four years, or even forty years, but we will win. It only took a handful of people with a desire for freedom to start America. The desire and the people…are still here.

Our workshop Shattering America’s Trance shows you how to dismantle the very core of what holds the progressives together.

About

John Anthony is a former teacher, nationally acclaimed speaker and for 25 years owned Corporate Measures, a training firm that specialized in building cohesive business units. John’s work concentrated on discarding preconceptions and understanding other team members and issues, as the key to forming working bonds. John is deeply concerned about political practices that polarize Americans and the ‘dumbing down’ effects the media’s misrepresentations have on citizens. His workshop, “Shattering America’s Trance” unravels these distortions using techniques that pull community members together behind common concerns.